Objective: To observe the therapeutic efficacy and safety of sequential administration of erlotinib following chemotherapy in patients with erlotinib (as second-line treatment)-resistant advanced NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). Methods: Thirty stages ?B-? NSCLC patients with gradual progression after erlotinib treatment as second-line therapy were retrospectively reviewed. Of the 30 patinets, 15 patinets (group A) received one cycle of chemotherapy (pemetrexed plus cisplatin) followed by erlotinib, the remaining 15 patinets (group B) received chemotherapy alone (pemetrexed plus cisplatin). The short-term response and side effects were observed and the survival was analyzed. Results: The objective response rates of group A and group B were 13.3% (2/15) and 6.7% (1/15), respectively (P = 1.000), and the disease control rates were 40.0% (6/15) and 20.0% (3/15), respectively (P = 0.426). The median progression-free survival of group A and group B were 6.0 and 4.0 months, respectively (P = 0.001). There were no significant differences in the rates of side effects between the two groups. Conclusion: The administration of erlotinib following chemotherapy may offer benefits to the patients with erlotinib (as second-line treatment)-resistant advanced NSCLC. This treatment is also generally tolerable. Copyright © 2013 by TUMOR.

OBJECTIVE:To observe clinical efficacy and safety of levofloxacin and azithromycin in the treatment of community acquired mycoplasma pneumonia (CAMP).METHODS:A total of 108 patients with CAMP were randomly divided into group A and group B (n=54).Group A received intravenous administration of levofloxacin (0.6 g,qd) and group B intravenous administration of azithromycinin (0.5 g,qd) for 7 days.The clinical efficacy and ADR of 2 groups were observed.RESULTS:The total effective rates of group A and group B were 83% and 56%,there was significant difference between 2 groups (P0.05).CONCLUSION:The clinical efficacy of levofloxacin in the treatment for CAMP is better than that of azithromycin.Levofloxacin and azithromycin have good safety.

Adenoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Keratin-7 ; metabolism ; Kidney Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Kidney Transplantation ; Living Donors ; Male ; Mucin-1 ; metabolism ; Young Adult

Objective To explore the effects of low frequency electric stimulation on the clinical manifes- tation and its influence on the level of plasma Endothelin (ET),atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP),thromboxane B_2 (TXB_2),angiotensinⅡ(AngⅡ),Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide(CGRP) and Neuron-specific Enolase(NSE) and its clinical significance in the patients with vertebrobasilar insufficiency(VBI). Methods One hundred and tewenty cases of VBI patients were randomly divided into two groups:a treatment group and a control group.Both groups received routine drug treatment.The treatment group (n=60) was also treated with low frequency electric stimulation at bilateral mastoid processfes in addition.The improved rate of the clinical symptom,the plasma level of ET,ANP,TXB_2,AngⅡ,GRP and NSE were observed after treatment. Results The patients treated in the treatment group had significantly better outcome than the control group in terms of symptom relief.The effective rate was 87.93% and 67.80% in the treatment group and control group,respectively(P

Adult ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Education ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Health

1H NMR-based metabolomic approach combined with multivariate statistical analysis was used to evaluate the quality of 21 Farfarae Flos (FF) samples from different growth regions. Principal component analysis showed that wild and cultivated FF could be separated clearly, suggesting a big chemical difference existed between them. Supervised PLS-DA analysis indicated that the wild samples showed higher levels of secondary metabolites, such as bauer-7-ene-3β, 16α-diol, chlorogenic acid, rutin, 7-(3'-ethylcrotonoyloxy)-1α-(2'-methyl-butyryloxy)-3, 14-dehydro-Z-notonipetranone (EMDNT), tussilagone, β-sitosterol and sitosterone. This is consistent with traditional experience that the quality of wild samples are better than that of cultivated ones. The content of pyrrolizidine alkaloids senkirkine also differed greatly among samples from different habitats. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that senkirkine is positively correlated with 4, 5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, rutin, kampferol analogues, to a statistically significant extent. The correlation between the toxic compounds and the bioactive components in FF should be further studied.
Chlorogenic Acid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Flowers ; chemistry ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Metabolomics ; Quinic Acid ; analogs & derivatives ; Rutin ; Sitosterols ; Tussilago ; chemistry

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Complement System Proteins ; analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; analysis ; Infant ; Male ; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma ; immunology

Objective To detect the expressions of miR-155,T helper type 17 (Thl7) cells,and Th17 cellspecific transcription factor RORγt and effector cytokine interleukin (IL)-17 in peripheral blood and skin lesions from,and to evaluate their relationship in,patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).Methods Peripheral blood was obtained from 37 patients with AD and 33 age-and sex-matched healthy controls,and biopsy specimens from the lesional and perilesional skin of five patients with severe AD as well as from the normal skin of five healthy human controls.Real-time fluorescence-based reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was employed to measure the mRNA expression levels of miR-155,RORγt and IL-17 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and skin specimens,flow cytometry to detect the percentage of Th17 cells in PBMCs,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the plasma concentration of IL-17.Statistical analysis was done using independent sample's t test,one-way analysis of variance followed by the least significant difference test,and linear correlation analysis.Results Compared with the healthy controls,the patients with AD showed a significant increase in Th17 cell percentage (1.78％ ± 0.52％ vs.0.47％ ± 0.15％,P＜ 0.01),mRNA expression levels of miR-155 (5.78 ± 1.78 vs.1.82 ± 0.46,P＜ 0.01),RORγt (6.08 ± 1.04 vs.1.64 ± 0.52,P＜ 0.01) and IL-17 (7.09 ± 1.75 vs.1.71 ± 0.46,P＜ 0.01),as well as in the plasma concentration of IL-17 ((2.51 ± 6.15) pg/ml vs.(11.80 ± 2.24) pg/ml,P＜ 0.01).There was a sequential decrease in the expression levels of miR-155,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA from lesional skin,perilesional skin to normal skin (F =41.803,17.040 and 37.064 respectively,all P ＜ 0.01).The miR-155 mRNA expression level in PBMCs was positively correlated with the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index,Th17 cell percentage,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA expression levels as well as IL-17 plasma concentration (r =0.405,0.426,0.402,0.410 and 0.408 respectively,all P ＜ 0.05).Similarly,the miR-155 expression level was positively correlated with RORγt and IL-17 mRNA expression levels in lesional and paralesional specimens (r =0.428 and 0.435 respectively,both P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The up-regulated expression of miR-155,Th17 cells and their effector cytokine IL-17 may be associated with the development of AD.

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between nitric oxide (NO) in central nervous system and exercise-induced fatigue stress and to study the effect of L-arginine (L-Arg), as a substrate of nitric oxide, on the exercise capacity and NO content in the exhausted rat brain and blood.

METHODSThrough an implanted cannula, the normal saline or L-Arg was microinjected into rat's intracerebroventrical for consecutive four days. Then an acute exhaustive model (on the speed of 18 m/min, an inclination of 5 degrees) was established with animal treadmill. The time of exercise till exhaustion was recorded, and the total workload was calculated that represented the exercise capacity. Nitrate and nitrite (NO3/NO2-, NOx-) levels in blood, hypothalamus and hippocampus were assayed.

RESULTSBoth the time of exercise till exhaustion and total workload in the LArg group increased respectively by 51.8% and 50.08% (P < 0.05), compared with those in the control. The NOx- content in hypothalamus in the L-Arg group (8.93 +/- 1.83) micromol/g pro was larger than that in the control (4.25 +/- 0.79) micromol/g pro, (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in NOx- content in brain and hippocampus between the two groups. The total workload was positively correlated with NOx- concentration in hypothalamus (P < 0.01). However, there was no correlation between workload and changes in hippocampus NOx- content at fatigue.

CONCLUSIONIntracerebroventricular microinjection of L-Arg may enhance the exercise capacity and lead to up-regulation of NO by means of L-Arg-NO signal path in the hypothalamus. Hypothalamus may be a key site in brain in the modulation of physiological exercise.

Animals ; Arginine ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Hypothalamus ; metabolism ; Lateral Ventricles ; Male ; Nitric Oxide ; metabolism ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the efficacy and adverse reactions of accelerated hypofractionated 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) vs conventional radiotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using positron emission computed tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT)-derived plan. Methods: Between April 2009 and December 2011, sixty patients with locally advanced NCSLC were enrolled and randomly divided into group A (accelerated hypofractionated 3D-CRT using PET/CT-derived plan, n = 30) and group B (conventional radiotherapy using CT-derived plan, n = 30). All patients were treated with two cycles of induction chemotherapy (vinorelbine 25 mg/m2 d1, 8; cisplatin 40 mg/m2, d1-3; repeat every 21 days). The 30 patients in group A were treated with accelerated hypofractionated 3D-CRT (initially 2.5 Gy/fx, up to 50 Gy/20 fractions; then 3 Gy/fx, up to a total dose of 65 Gy). The 30 patients in group B were treated with conventional radiotherapy (60 Gy/30 fx). In addition, all patients were received at least one cycle of adjuvant chemotherapy of vinorelbine plus cisplatin. Results: In group A, 8 (26.7%) achieved complete response (CR), 13 (43.3%) achieved partial response (PR), and the objective response rate (CR+PR) was 70.0%; in group B, 4 (13.3%) achieved CR, 9 (30.0%) achieved PR, and the objective response rate was 43.3%; the difference in objective response rate between the two groups was significant (P = 0.037). The median survival time and the median progression-free survival time of group A were longer than those of the group B (20.5 vs 17.8 months, P = 0.236; 10.2 vs 8.2 months, P = 0.001). The major side effect induced by chemotherapy was marrow suppression which could be relieved by symptomatic treatment. The major side effects induced by radiotherapy were radiation-induced esophagitis and pneumonitis. Grade ? radiation-induced pneumonitis was observed in one and three patients in group A and group B, respectively; and Grade ? radiation-induced esophagitis was seen in one and two patients in group A and group B, respectively. There were no significant differences in the rates of side effects induced by radiation therapy between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Accelerated hypofractionated 3D-CRT using PET/CT-derived plan combined with induction chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced NSCLC is effective and tolerable. Copyright © 2014 by TUMOR.